MARRIAGE-PURPOSE
Marriage is a
picture of Christ and the church. It is a sacred mystery. In fact, the
sacredness of Christ’s church is linked to the sacredness of marriage. Christ
is the heavenly Bridegroom and the church is His bride (Revelation 21:9).
Marriage illustrates this union. The husband is called to be Christlike in his
love for his wife because this protects the sacredness of the divine object
lesson. The Christian husband therefore displays what he thinks of Christ by
the way he treats his wife. And marriage itself is a sacred institution because
of what it illustrates.
Successful Christian Parenting, 1998, p. 180.
The ultimate
thing we can say about marriage is that it exists for God’s glory. That is, it
exists to display God. Now we see how: Marriage is patterned after Christ’s
covenant relationship to His redeemed people, the church. And therefore, the
highest meaning and the most ultimate purpose of marriage is to put the
covenant relationship of Christ and His church on display. That is why marriage
exists. If you are married, that is why you are married. If you hope to be,
that should be your dream.
John Piper
This
Momentary Marriage – A Parable of Permanence, Desiring God Foundation, 2008, p.
25, www.DesiringGod.org.
The wonder of
marriage is woven into the wonder of the gospel of the cross of Christ, and the
message of the cross is foolishness to the natural man, and so the meaning of
marriage is foolishness to the natural man (1 Cor. 2:14).
John Piper
This
Momentary Marriage – A Parable of Permanence, Desiring God Foundation, 2008, p.
29, www.DesiringGod.org.
Marriage is
for making children into disciples of Jesus. Here the focus shifts. This
purpose of marriage is not merely to add more bodies to the planet. The point
is to increase the number of followers of Jesus on the planet… God’s purpose in
making marriage the place to have children was never merely to fill the earth
with people, but to fill the earth with worshippers of the true God… When the
focus of marriage becomes “Make children disciples of Jesus,” the meaning of
marriage in relation to children is not mainly “Make them,” but “Make them disciples.” And the latter can happen
even where the former doesn’t.
John Piper
This
Momentary Marriage – A Parable of Permanence, Desiring God Foundation, 2008,
p.138-139, www.DesiringGod.org.
Very soon the
shadow will give way to Reality. The partial will pass into the Perfect. The
foretaste will lead to the Banquet. The troubled path will end in Paradise. A
hundred candle-lit evenings will come to their consummation in the marriage
supper of the Lamb. And this momentary marriage will be swallowed up by Life.
Christ will be all and in all. And the purpose of marriage will be complete.
John Piper
This
Momentary Marriage – A Parable of Permanence, Desiring God Foundation, 2008,
p.178, www.DesiringGod.org.
God patterned
marriage purposefully after the relationship between His Son and the church,
which He planned from eternity. And therefore marriage is a mystery; it
contains and conceals a meaning far greater than what we see on the outside.
What God has joined together in marriage is to be a reflection of the union
between the Son of God and His bride the church. Those of us who are married
need to ponder again and again how mysterious and wonderful it is that we are
granted by God the privilege to image forth stupendous divine realities
infinitely bigger and greater than ourselves.
John Piper
Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, Bethlehem
Baptist Church, 2002, p. 250.
God intends
and expects marriage to be a lifetime commitment between a man and a woman,
based on the principles of biblical love. The relationship between Jesus Christ
and His church is the supreme example of the committed love that a husband and
wife are to follow in their relationship with each other.
Biblical Counseling Foundation
Self-Confrontation Manuel, Lesson 14, Page 2,
Used by Permission of the Biblical Counseling Foundation.
The first
negative judgment we find in Holy Writ is a judgment on loneliness. God said,
“It is not good for man to be alone.”
R.C. Sproul
The
Intimate Marriage, P&R Publishing, 1975, p. 43.
It
is commonly accepted among men today that the great danger is to get married
too early. The thought of marriage is approached with fear and trepidation,
with the threat of what the man will lose mainly in mind. But in the view of
Genesis 2 – and in our experience in ministering to singles – the greater
danger is what will happen to the man if he doesn’t marry. It is not good for a
single man to develop selfish and otherwise sinful habits. It is not good for a
man to grow older without the sanctifying influences of a wife and children. It
is not good for a man to battle with sexual frustrations. (The same things
might be said about a woman, too, but the Bible is specifically talking here about
the man.) What is good for a man is to seek a relationship that will blossom
into marriage – the sooner in adult life, the better.
Richard D. Phillips
and Sharon L. Phillips
Holding
Hands and Holding Hearts, P&R, 2006, p. 21. Used by Permission.
Marriage has
all kinds of purposes: it provides the environment in which children may be
born and properly reared. It provides the context in which the sexual instincts
can be exercised in a God-intended way. But first and foremost, Genesis teaches
us, it provides a very special friendship. In marriage a man and a woman can
become the best of friends, knowing each other to such a depth that only God
knows them better! This, too, is a gift from the Creator.
Sinclair Ferguson
A Heart for God, 1987, p. 32, by
permission Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA.
We [should
not] make the mistake of thinking that marriage will provide the ultimate
satisfaction for which we all hunger. To assume so would be to be guilty of
blasphemy. Only God satisfies the hungry heart. Marriage is but one of the
channels He uses to enable us to taste how deeply satisfying His
thirst-quenching grace can be.
Sinclair B. Ferguson
Discovering God’s Will, By Permission of the Banner of
Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA. 1991, p. 92.
As God made
man in His own image, so He made earthly marriage in the image of His own
eternal marriage with His people.
Geoffrey Bromiley
God and Marriage, Eerdmans, 1980, p. 43, www.weerdmans.com.